Indicate
by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (§230.405
of this chapter) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (§240.12b-2 of this chapter). Emerging Growth Company
¨

If
an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for
complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨

Item 2.02 - Results of Operations and Financial Condition

On March 30, 2020, Acura Pharmaceuticals,
Inc. issued a press release announcing its financial results for its three and twelve months ended December 31, 2019. A copy of
that press release and the attached financial schedules are attached as Exhibit 99.1 to this report and incorporated herein
by reference.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

Date: April 1, 2020

ACURA PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.

By:

/s/ Peter A. Clemens

Peter A. Clemens

Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

2

Exhibit 99.1

Acura Pharmaceuticals Announces

Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2019 Financial
Results

Palatine, IL – (March 30, 2020) -
Acura Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company engaged in the research,
development and commercialization of technologies and product candidates intended to mitigate the risk of outcomes associated with
product misuse, announced today financial results for the three and twelve months
ended December 31, 2019.

The Company reported an operating income
of $0.3 million for the fourth quarter 2019 compared to an operating loss of $0.3 million for the same period in 2018. For the
twelve months ended December 31, 2019, the Company reported an operating loss of $0.7 million compared to an operating loss of
$4.0 million for the same period in 2018.

The Company reported net income of $0.2
million or $0.00 per diluted share for the fourth quarter 2019 compared to net income of $8 thousand or $0.00 per diluted share
for the same period in 2018. For the twelve months ended December 31, 2019, the Company reported a net loss of $3.8 million or
$0.14 per diluted share compared to a net loss of $3.8 million or $0.18 per diluted share for the same period in 2018. Included
in the results for 2019 is a one-time expense of $2.6 million due to the extinguishment of debt associated with the June 28, 2019
transaction with Abuse Deterrent Pharma, LLC.

In each of the twelve month periods ended
December 31, 2019 and 2018, the Company recorded $0.4 million in royalty revenue. In 2019 the Company recorded $2.1 million in
license fees and $0.2 million in collaboration revenue, such revenues derived from the license agreement with Abuse Deterrent Pharma
for the period June 28, 2019 to December 31, 2019.

Research and development expense was $1.5
million for the twelve month period ended December 31, 2019, compared to $1.8 million for the same period in 2018. These expenses
were $0.5 million for the fourth quarter 2019, compared to $0.1 million for the same period in 2018. The expenses for both years
were primarily associated with development of LTX-03.

General and administrative expense was
$1.9 million for the twelve month period ended December 31, 2019, versus $2.6 million in the same period last year, such reduction
primarily a result of reduced compensation, corporate insurance and legal expenses. These expenses were $0.5 million for the fourth
quarter 2019, compared to $0.2 million for the same period in 2018.

As of March 30, 2020, the Company had a
cash balance of approximately $1.2 million. On June 28, 2019, we entered into a License, Development and Commercialization Agreement
(the “Agreement”) with Abuse Deterrent Pharma, LLC (”AD Pharma”) for our lead product candidate, LTX-03
(hydrocodone bitartrate with acetaminophen immediate-release tablets utilizing Acura’s patented LIMITx™ technology).
The Agreement is described in our press release dated July 2, 2019 and our Form 8-K filed July 5, 2019. This Agreement provides
that AD Pharma will pay the Company monthly license payments of $350,000 from July 2019 through November 2020, subject to AD Pharma’s
right to terminate such payments, and they will pay the Company for the outside development costs of LTX-03.

The Company filed its Third Quarter 2019
Form 10-Q on February 28, 2020 and thus became current with its SEC filings. The Company submitted an application for uplisting
to the OTCQB Market in March, 2020 and effective March 23, 2020 its common stock is quoted on the OTCQB Market and no longer on
the OTC Pink.

About Acura Pharmaceuticals

Acura Pharmaceuticals is a specialty pharmaceutical
company engaged in the research, development and commercialization of technologies and product candidates intended to mitigate
the risk of outcomes associated with product misuse. The Company has three proprietary technologies: LIMITx™ Technology,
AVERSION® Technology and IMPEDE® Technology.

LIMITxTM Technology utilizes
acid neutralizing ingredients to precisely control gastric acidity, which limits the release of drug from tablets and its subsequent
systemic absorption when multiple tablets are ingested. LIMITxTM Technology is useful with products whose side effect
risks can be mitigated by limiting exposure to a drug in overdose situations.

AVERSION® Technology, used in the FDA
approved drug OXAYDO® (oxycodone HCl) marketed by Zyla Life Sciences, utilizes polymers designed to limit the abuse of the
product by nasal snorting and injection. AVERSION® Technology is also licensed to KemPharm for use in certain of their products.

IMPEDE® Technology, used in NEXAFED®
(pseudoephedrine HCl) and NEXAFED® Sinus (pseudoephedrine HCl/acetaminophen) marketed by MainPointe Pharmaceuticals, utilizes
polymers and other ingredients to disrupt the extraction and processing of pseudoephedrine from the tablets into methamphetamine.

Forward-looking Statements:

Certain statements in this press release
constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results,
performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied
by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may include, but are not limited to:

·

our ability to fund or obtain funding
for our continuing operations, including the development of our products utilizing our LIMITxTM and IMPEDE® Technologies;

our business could be adversely affected
by health epidemics in regions where third parties for which we rely, as in CROs or CMOs, have concentrations of clinical trial
sites or other business operations, and could cause significant disruption in the operations of third-party manufacturers and CROs
upon whom we rely;

·

the expected results of clinical studies
relating to LTX-03, IMPEDE® or any successor product candidate, the date by which such studies will complete and the results
will be available and whether any product candidate will ultimately receive FDA approval;

·

the ability of LTX-03 single tablets to
achieve bioequivalence or to demonstrate efficacy in a clinical study;

In
some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terms such as "may," “will”, "should,"
"could," "would," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "estimates,"
“indicates”, "projects," “predicts," "potential" and similar expressions intended to
identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current views with respect to future events and are based on
assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements. We discuss many of these risks in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.